"This attack on religious freedom cannot and will not stand," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

"This administration is assaulting the Catholic Church," said the former presidential candidate, Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas.

Their comments were clearly aimed at the mostly religious audience, but sitting stage left in the spacious Marriott ballroom was a registered guest who defined himself as not only supportive of abortions, but even of gay marriage.

Granted, Cameron Parker is a senior at the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus, one of many students who attended the annual CPAC show in northwest Washington.

"I'm personally pro-choice," Parker said.

The younger audience at CPAC, Parker said, is reflective of a "little more mainstream" bloc that could potentially bring the conservative movement away from the fringe with which it is so often associated.

Gay marriage is part of that. Parker, who supports that, too, said gay marriage is an "equal protection issue" that conservatives should naturally embrace.